Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
Changing lighting
The plants grow pretty well at the current lighting but some aren't thriving as well as they could be. I don't know the name of most of them so I don't know their light requirements but I could take a pic and maybe someone will have an idea. There's some java moss, amazon swords, some type of anubias, anacharis, and about 4 or 5 others. Would changing the light to a higher wattage suddenly have a bad effect on the plants or is more light generally a good thing?
Thanks
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. Awell, live and learn I guess. Thanks man.Jay
Location: Finglas, North Dublin.
Life
may not be the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance.
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Fresh water is the best source of co2 if no co2 system or liquid is used imo.
You really want most co2 used up by the eve and low o2 levels at dawn, not too low for fish if any. But if just planted and no fish, the less co2 in the water come night then the more o2 can be in the water and same come morning, less o2 means more co2 can be present for the plants.
I have a planted setup, heavily planted, no fert, just mineral substrate and liquid co2 and t5s
I add 10ml carbolife in the morning with reduced aeration, not heavily stocked.
I then put the spray bar on full for the night which heavily oxygenates the water over night.
I have been lighting 10 hourns on 14 hours off adding 10L of fresh water every day as well as the weekly cleanup and 50% change.
Salt 0.5 grams per litre
I get inches a month growth to cut away, nice lush green and it has only been set up a few weeks.
mark
Location D.11
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I've been looking into starting to use ferts, what would you recommend? Is flourish excel available in ireland? Are all fertilisers safe for shrimp? I can't do CO2 for the moment but ferts wouldn't be a problem. Do they affect pH at all?
Here's a pic of the tank, do you think the plants in it could do with higher lighting? Don't know names of most of them. The broad leaved one to the right is fairly new and isn't doing well, and I think the tall darker plant to the left could do a bit better too. There's 4 anubias plants which are on the far left (not in the pic) which also could prob do with a bit more light. (or maybe just ferts?)
What is the best time to use the air pump? Is it good to leave on overnight? I would have no prob plugging it in at night if it'll be helpful to the fish. I haven't done as I thought the fish would like fairly still water for nighttime, because the bubble wand stretches the length of the back of the tank and causes a lot of water movement but I could stick in a smaller attachment for night. I assume if I fertilise I will need to use the air pump more to add in oxygen for the fish, how do I get the happy balance of enough CO2 for plants but enough O2 for the fish?
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